Increasing diversity within the children's publishing world

An overcast Sunday afternoon in the south coast of England, and I've had too much coffee. Perhaps feeling Berkeley-inspired, I made an extra strong pot of french press, and my brain is jittering as a result.

Brooklyn Arden has a great post about how to become a children's book editor, with loads of tips and strategies. One of her suggestions is to get an internship (often unpaid), which is certainly a very good way to get into the business. The problem is, who can afford to do unpaid work for a publisher in order to then get a low-paying entry level job? There was much talk at the recent Diversity Matters publishing conference about how white and middle class the children's publishing industry is. People discussed why that might be, and the unpaid internships and overall low pay was one of the main reasons. Another was the invisibility of publishing as a career path for most children and university students. Are there ways to make this a clearer option, and to attract book-loving people from lots of different backgrounds?

I know the US and the UK are different places, but I think that both publishing industries (at least in the children's area) are very, very white places indeed. Last I checked, the UK has an 8% ethnic minority population, which rises to almost 30% in London (that's from census statistics). In the US, I think the overall population is closer to 30%, which becomes more like 50% in places like LA and New York (census again). It seems very clear that those who work in the publishing industry don't come close to reflecting that reality, nor do most stories published in the children's books.

So what do we do? Arts Council England sponsors internships. This is how they describe it on the website

The programme of traineeships run by Arts Council England, London is getting stronger with yet again another round starting in October 2006.

A joint-traineeship between the London College of Communication MA Publishing Course and publishers Serpent’s Tail is now on offer. The London College of Communication (LCC) has decided to waive the MA course fees for an applicant from a Black African, Caribbean, Asian or Chinese background.

This ongoing partnership with LCC and their participation to the Arts Council’s programme of positive action traineeships mean to address the under-representation of those ethnic groups on publishing courses.

I know that Alison Morrison, UK Marketing Director at Walker Books, came in through one of these ACE traineeships several years ago. Not only has she succeeded in the children's publishing world, but she and Elise Dillsworth, Editor from Virago Press, also co-founded the Diversity in Publishing Network. DIPnet lists the following aims and objectives on their website:

- To promote the status and contribution of people from diverse ethnic groups in all areas of publishing
- To provide a forum for discussion and the sharing of information and expertise
- To encourage communication and mutual support among people from diverse ethnic groups in publishing
- Where possible, to help with practical training for career development
- Work towards equality of opportunity and advancement for minority ethnic groups in publishing
- Undertake activity that informs, promotes and inspires others seeking to enter, or already working in, publishing
- To develop international links with other publishing industries to share knowledge and ideas
- To develop relationships with organisations and individuals whose aims are reflective of the Diversity in Publishing Network

Initiatives and organizations like this offer a good start. It's also important that those who work in publishing talk openly and honestly about the lack of diversity within the publishing industry, and how to actively change it. There are publishing companies, such as Pearson (parent to Penguin/Puffin, etc) who have developed a diversity strategy. As Francesca Dow from Puffin said at the Diversity Matters conference, by 2010 one in five school children in England will be from black and minority ethnic (BME) backgrounds, so there is a clear business as well as a moral imperative for publishers to start to reflect this reality in both the books published, as well as those who work at the publishers.

In terms of the books published, of course there are the publishers who are already actively trying to make a difference. In the US, there are Children's Book Press, Lee & Low, Just Us Books, Polychrome, Cinco Puntos Press, Piñata Press, and the recently-relocated Milet Books. You also have the larger publisher with imprints, such as Jump at the Sun at Hyperion.

In the UK, there's Tamarind, Mantra, Frances Lincoln, and wonderful indepent projects such as the work done by poet, author, and activist Debjani Chatterjee. There are also distributors like Letterbox Library who help to make diverse books available, though many of them are imported from the US.

But there's so much further to go. I'll post the very detailed notes I took at the Diversity Matters conference on my website, so anyone interested can read some of the discussion which took place there. But if anyone has comments or suggestions, please leave comments on the blog. Open discussion is certainly an important way to go...